This invention relates to a safety device for small-wheeled vehicles, and relates more particularly to a safety steering control for the steerable wheel of a vehicle such as a scooter.
The current popularity of small-wheeled scooters such as the popular xe2x80x9cRAZORxe2x80x9d brand of scooters has been accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of injuries resulting from accidents of various types. One type, in particular, is the so-called xe2x80x9cjack-knifingxe2x80x9d of the scooter when it is operating at high speed and, for various reasons, the front wheel is turned more sharply than the scooter can accommodate.
When the forward momentum of the scooter is very high, it may continue forwardly instead of turning with the wheel, and crimp the front wheel in a non-rotating, turned position, typically causing the scooter and its user to crash. At a lower level of excessive speed, this sometimes causes the occupant simply to lose steering control, sometimes with similar disastrous results.
The present invention resides in a steering control for the steerable wheels of scooters and other small-wheeled vehicles, which is adapted for easy installation on conventional scooters and, installed, is selectively engageable to provide safety control by limiting the angular steering motion of the front wheel to a restricted range that is much less likely to result in jack-knifing or other steering accidents. The control can be engaged in a quick and easy manner, and can be disengaged with equal ease so as to avoid interference with the full range of steering during low-speed operation.
For these purposes, the preferred embodiment of the invention comprises two relatively movable control elements for mounting on the support for the steerable wheel, typically the handlebar, and on the body of the scooter, and a selectively engageable and disengageable, motion-limiting coupling between the control elements that is operable, when engaged, to restrict relative turning of the elements, and thus of the handlebar, relative to the body, and limit such turning to the selected range. The control elements may be attachments that are installed as xe2x80x9cafter-marketxe2x80x9d add-ons, or may be built into the scooter by the manufacturer as xe2x80x9cOEMxe2x80x9d equipment.
More specifically, the preferred embodiment of the invention, shown in the drawings for purposes of illustrating the invention, comprises upper and lower attachments that are mounted, respectively, on the handlebar and on the body. These attachments are on the turnable handlebar post above the mounting tube on the front of the body, supporting the handlebar rotatably on the body, and on the mounting sleeve itself. These attachments are preferably tubular sleeves, each of which is longitudinally split or divided on one side for ease of mounting on the post and the mounting sleeve, and each preferably having a snap-locking, channel-shaped xe2x80x9ckeeperxe2x80x9d that fits over outwardly extending ribs along the splits to hold the attachments securely in place. Both of the attachments and keepers may be relatively hard plastic such as polypropylene.
The motion-limiting coupling between the two attachments is formed by angularly spaced abutments on one of the attachments, herein opposite ends of a limiting recess in the lower one and a control member in the form of a pin mounted on the other attachment, preferably the upper one, to move longitudinally of the handlebar post into and out of the limiting recess. Conveniently, the attachment having the recess is positioned behind the handlebar mounting sleeve with the two abutments spaced equally to each side, and the control pin is positioned immediately behind the handlebar post and is centered in the recess in the straight-ahead steering position of the front wheel.
A selectively operable latch is provided to hold the control pin selectively in a raised, disengaged position and in a lowered, engaged position in which the lower end of the pin is in the recess. An optional second, wider recess may be provided above the first recess to provide a second, less limited steering range, the control pin being movable between two different engaged positions as well as a disengaged position. Another alternative embodiment forms the motion-limiting recess as a flexible rubber O-ring that is trapped in place in the lower attachment, thereby softening the limiting action of the steering control.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the accompanying drawings.